In recent years, laminated ceramic capacitors, representing laminated electronic components, have been designed to have thin dielectric ceramic layers and thin internal electrode layers to meet demands for smaller size and higher capacitance. For example, there are proposed a method of forming a patterned conductor (for serving as an internal electrode layer) on a film by a physical thin film forming method such as sputtering and vapor deposition or by a chemical thin film forming method such as electroless plating (see for example Patent Document 1 listed below) and another method suitable for mass production including forming a patterned conductor by an electroplating method using a nickel electrolyte or the like (see for example Patent Document 2 listed below).
Recently, it has also been disclosed that an additive such as sulfur is added to a Ni plating pattern so that the following capability of the plating film on a ceramic layer can be increased and that the adhesion between the layers can also be increased (see for example Patent Document 3 listed below).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-243650
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-329634
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-309037